Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Two-Toed Tom - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 17, 2026

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Two-Toed Tom - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 17, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's
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  Dothan campus, identifying and preserving historical documents
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  and photographs for research related to the Wiregrass region. More information
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  at troy.edu/wiregrassarchives.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In
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  Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  Historian Dale Cox is known for his lively stories and
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  his Two Egg TV Channel with its televised
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  visits across the South. We caught up with Dale to
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  learn more about a legendary giant alligator,
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  Two-Toed Tom. Dale wrote about Two-Toed Tom
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  in a chapter of his book, Two Egg Florida.
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  Dale Cox, welcome back to Troy Public Radio. I am very
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  happy to be here. Let me ask you, Dale, about your book Two Egg
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  Florida. It has a number of fascinating chapters, one of
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  which is the legend of Two-Toed Tom.
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  What or who was Two-Toed Tom?
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  Well, Two-Toed Tom is a legend that actually grew in South
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  Alabama. Carl Carmer was the first to describe
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  this story in print in the book Stars Fell on Alabama. But this legend
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  then grew after the alligator supposedly
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  swam across the line into Northwest Florida,
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  and the story picked up after they finally were
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  able to run Two-Toe out of South Alabama.
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  He showed back up in North Florida and is
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  today believed to be in a place called Sand Hammock Lake,
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  which is in the little community Esto, Florida,
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  which is in Holmes County, just south of Geneva,
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  Alabama. This tale starts in the 1920s,
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  and you're saying this thing could still be alive? Yes,
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  people very firmly believe that Two-Toed Tom is still
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  alive and still inhabits Sand Hammock Lake in Holmes County.
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  In your chapter, you talk about size was estimated at
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  14 feet, but this thing killed a mule, a 12-year-old
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  girl. Some people said it was 17 feet. Straighten all
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  this out. When Mr. Carmer described him at
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  that time, he was believed to be 14 feet long. Now he's been
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  growing since then, so the descriptions of
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  him that they have around Esto today are that
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  he's the length of a telephone pole and that he
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  is said to be somewhere around 8
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  feet from shoulder to shoulder. The length ranges from
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  18 to 24 feet long. They know he is Two-Toed
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  Tom because one of his front feet only has, you know, the 2 toes on
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  it, which was the telltale sign as he
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  was described in South Alabama way back in the early 1900s.
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  And yes, he, he was rumored to have killed people,
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  to have killed other alligators, to have killed cattle.
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  He was quite a beast and is still believed to be quite a beast.
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  Now, this thing would be 100 years old. Is this
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  possible? I know that when the very first
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  explorers arrived in Florida back in the 1500s,
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  they drew sketches of the Native
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  Americans, of the Timucuan Indians battling alligators.
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  They show them trying to kill these alligators by
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  taking large poles and shoving them into
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  the alligators' mouths and then attacking the alligators
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  with spears and lances. And based on the size
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  of the alligators in these sketches that they
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  drew, these alligators in these sketches from the
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  1500s would be the size of what
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  Two-Toed Tom is described as being today. They would
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  definitely be well in excess of 20 feet. The alligators were
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  the top of the food chain. Based on these descriptions,
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  they were living dinosaurs and still are living dinosaurs until human
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  beings came along and, you know, and almost wiped them out.
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  I know there are some descriptions that I've read from
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  like the 1890s, from the early 1900s,
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  newspaper accounts from the logging camps down
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  on the Pee River and the Choctawhatchee River where
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  they killed some really enormous alligators. I saw a
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  description of one that after he was killed, they measured him
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  and he would have been longer than the largest
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  alligator ever verified by wildlife authorities in the United States.
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  Yeah, you mentioned in this chapter in Walton County,
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  Florida, there was a gator 17-plus feet
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  long, killed by a logging crew, right? And then
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  you also mentioned in the same chapter a group of people tried
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  to kill one with 15 buckets of dynamite. What happened with that one?
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  That was Two-Toed Tom, I believe, and that one got
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  away. That's the one that came down into Florida.
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  There's a great story about Two-Toed Tom after he got into Sand
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  Hammock Lake in Holmes County, where he came out and
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  And there was a mother and her young daughter were walking along
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  the shore of the lake. And this is one thing you see about these
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  alligator attacks in Florida. Alligators often feed right
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  around sundown. These attacks usually happen when people
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  are walking or they're walking their dog late in the afternoon.
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  That's also the time of day that alligators feed.
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  And they were walking along Sand Hammock Lake
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  right about sundown. And this alligator that people believed
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  was Two-Toed Tom came out and got between them.
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  I interviewed the woman who had been the
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  little girl at the time. She was, at the time I interviewed her,
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  a senior citizen. She was living in assisted living in Pensacola.
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  She described to me how this alligator rose
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  up on its hind legs. I did not realize that alligators
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  could do that. But after talking to her, I spoke to
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  some wildlife authorities who told me that in fact, for short periods of time,
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  they actually can do that. They actually look quite
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  a bit like a tyrannosaur when they do that. And she described how
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  this enormous alligator rose up on its hind legs,
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  and she was separated from her mother by this enormous alligator.
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  And they began to scream, and people came running.
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  And when they got there, here's this enormous alligator that has separated
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  the mother and her daughter. And Mr.
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  Holland came, and people in the Wiregrass area may
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  remember a television personality named Red Holland who ran an outdoors
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  television show for many years. I believe it was his grandfather.
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  And he brought a war rifle that he had had in World War I,
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  and he shot this alligator, and they believed that they had killed
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  it. So they decided they were going to cut the alligator's tail
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  off with an ax and eat the alligator. The tail is the part
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  that is good to eat. So they hit the alligator's tail with
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  an ax and the alligator was playing possum. It was not dead. The alligator
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  immediately swung its tail and toppled them like dominoes and
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  took off back into the lake. The lady described this just in perfect
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  detail to me. And so I believe the story as she told it.
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  And in Esto, they've had the Two-Toed Tom Festival. I remember
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  at one time the mayor offered a reward for anyone
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  who could bring in proof of Two-Toed Tom's existence in the lake,
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  and people came out and surrounded the lake with rifles and shotguns
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  to try to collect the reward, but no one was fortunate enough to do
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  so. But they still look for signs of Two-Toed Tom in Sand Hammock
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  Lake, and people who live in that area tell me that at certain times of
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  the year they hear an enormous alligator bellow coming
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  from Sand Hammock Lake. And anyone who's familiar with the book Stars Fell on
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  Alabama will recognize the story From Alabama,
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  it spread down into the Florida Panhandle where they very
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  fervently believe that this red-eyed demon-possessed
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  alligator monster is still alive. He's very much the Loch Ness Monster
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  of the Florida Panhandle now. Wow. We do need to remind
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  the listeners that there are laws concerning interactions with alligators.
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  Talk with your state conservation department to find out more about that.
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  Dale, this is quite a story, and I want to thank you for sharing
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  it. The legend of Two-Toed Tom. You are very
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  welcome. Joining us was historian Dale Cox.
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  The giant alligator Two-Toed Tom was
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  described in a chapter of Dale's classic book,
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  Two-Egg Florida. We first broadcast our interview
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  with Dale in August of 2023.
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  More about Dale, his books, and TV visits
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  can be found at the website,
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  twoeggtv.com.
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  Thanks for joining us today for In Focus,
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  which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.